Friendliness is Everywhere
by cutie.rush
Summary: Katniss Everdeen, an only child, loses her parents in a car accident. When waiting for the emergency crew, a family stops by and offer to take her hiking with them and drop her off at her Aunt Effie's afterwards. Will she keep losing people in her life? Or will they stay? Modern day AU.


I felt a ray of sunshine touch my face and heard the sound of an alarm, and I knew it was the start of a new day. I jump out of bed, turn off my alarm, and take a quick glance in the mirror. Today was the day.

I enter the washroom, shower, brush my teeth, wash my face, and brush my hair. We were going to Vancouver to visit my grandparents and I definitely want to be clean. I exit the washroom and put on a red madras dress my grandma bought me, choosing to wear it for her pleasure. I grab my bags, one filled with clothes and the other filled with books and gifts. I exit my room with my bags and put them at the door. I go to the kitchen and start to prepare a healthy, hearty breakfast of eggs, hash browns, and fresh orange juice. When my eggs and hash browns are almost cooked, I go upstairs and knock on my parent's bedroom door, alerting them that breakfast is almost completed.

"We'll be down in a couple of minutes." My dad yells through the door.

"Okay, take your time!" I yell back, so they can hear me.

I run down the stairs and go back to the kitchen. The eggs and hash browns were done cooking, so I put one in each person's plate and poured orange juice in each cup. The table looked appealing, so I took a photo and shared on My Story on SnapChat.

"Are you taking pictures of the breakfast you made again?" My mom asks as I'm taking a photo.

"Kinda have to." I blandly reply back with a smile forming on my face.

"Okay, whatever." She takes a seat and a few seconds later my dad comes downstairs to join us.

"Looks delicious." He utters clearly admired by my work.

We devour our meal in silence and I quickly wash the dishes afterwards, as my parents put all our stuff in the car. When I'm done, I meet them at the car, making sure we didn't forget anything and we start driving to District 10. This will be a long drive.

* * *

I wake up from my nap from the sound of _SCREECH!_ and _CRASH!._ My grey eyes flutter adjusting to the scene in front of me. The car across from us was dented and the driver appeared to be dead. My car's windshield was cracked and my parents had cuts all over them resulting in blood giving their pale faces colour. I felt a sting and looked at my right arm, where two cuts formed from the crash. I press the lock button of the car and unlock the doors. I jump out of the car and start to analyze the scene in front of me. It seems to be that the driver of the other car was trying to take a U-turn on the highway or something for him to have hit my parents, resulting in the death of not just him, but my parents as well. I pull out my phone from my ebony purse and dial 9-1-1. After telling them to locate me since I have no idea where I am, they tell me they'll be there in less than ten minutes. _This is going to be a long ten minutes._

I want to go back to my car and sulk, but just as I'm about to, a car parks behind our car on the road. I thought it was the police, but instead just a blue minivan filled with people.

A chubby, blond woman gets out of the car with a huge smile plastered on her face. "Hey, what's going on here? Do you have any extra gas? My husband Ronald forgot to bring extra gas for our road trip."

"A car accident just occurred killing three people. I probably don't have extra gas, so I can't really help you."

"Oh my god, are you okay?" She questions with concern in her eyes. "Do you need anything? Come sit with us in the car, until the emergency crew comes. You called 9-1-1 right? Oh yeah, I'm Caroline."

"Yes. Sure I'll sit in the car with you and your family." I reply lamely, needing something to keep my mind off of what happened and if everyone in her family is like that, then it won't be a problem.

We enter the car and she introduces me to everyone; her husband Ronald, her 16-year old son Peeta, her 14-year old daughter Prim, and her 12-year old son Rye.

"So where do you live?" Rye questions.

"In District 12."

"We live in District 11."

"I have an aunt that lives there." I comment.

"I love your dress." Compliments Prim.

"I love your shirt." Her shirt said, "I hate boys." It would make sense for her to wear that, being the only daughter.

"I know right." She laughs.

"That shirt sucks and we all know that." Peeta retorts, snickering.

I look out the window, while the two siblings continue to bicker. A police car, ambulance, towing truck, and fire truck pull over behind the minivan and I jump out of the vehicle while muttering a quick "thanks".

The police ask all kinds of questions that I am not able to answer and then start to investigate based on evidence. The ambulance starts to check up on my parents and the driver of the other vehicle and place them in the ambulance, claiming they are dead and quickly drive away. The towing truck puts straps both cars in and take out our suit cases from the car and leave to their designated area, leaving me with the police. The police ask me if I want to go to District 10 to live with my grandparents or go live in District 11 with my aunt. I choose District 11 because 1. I love my aunt, 2. My cousins and I are very close, and 3. I don't want to trouble my grandparents with raising me for the next couple years.

"You're going to District 11? I live there! I can take her with me, once we get gas. It looks like we won't be going camping this weekend seeing how much of the day has gone by, it's almost not worth it anymore." Says Caroline.

"Do you trust her to take you?" Asks the officer.

"I do, but if my aunt lives too far away from her, then I'll just get you to drive me to my Aunt's."

"What's your aunt's name?"

"Effie Trinket."

"Oh my god, she's my neighbour! The one with three daughters, right?" Says Caroline.

I nod.

"We'll take her then!"

The police nod their head in approval and start to ask some questions to Caroline and get me to call my aunt Effie.

"Hello." She answers after two rings.

"Hey, Aunt Effie. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, is everything okay? You don't seem well? How are your parents?"

She just had to ask about my parents and start crying hysterically. "They just died in a car accident… you're my guardian now…" I cry.

"Oh my god Katniss. When will you be in District 11? Where are you right now?"

"In the middle of a highway somewhere, I should be in District 11 by today or tomorrow." I reply blandly.

"Okay honey, I'll see you soon. Do you have any requests for dinner? Do you want me to make your favourite roast beef?"

Anything my aunt made was delicious, but I didn't want her to make her famous roast beef and that would remind me too much of the holidays we spent with her, and that would remind me too much of my parents and I don't need that right now. "Anything is fine, but I'm not really craving roast beef, but thank you for asking."

"Okay sweetie, see you soon." And that's when I started breaking down in tears.

"Katniss, it'll be okay… it always gets better, trust me." Caroline says looking at me.

"Are you sure? Because I don't feel like it is."

"It takes a while. My parents died six months ago, now I'm starting to feel a little better. Let time heal the pain."

"I don't want to wait. I just want to close my eyes for a minute and open them to find my parents standing in front of me telling me they're not going anywhere." I utter.

"Maybe we should go camping… it'll take your mind off of things. How do you feel about that?" She questions.

Now that I think about it, camping doesn't sound too bad. "Yes, we should go. But let me call my aunt telling her that, I will be at her place later than tomorrow."

"You shouldn't have to, there's a camping site fifteen minutes away from here and we should be in District 11 by lunchtime if we leave first thing in the morning."

"Okay then, let me just grab my stuff. Do you have room for my parent's stuff too?"

"We should, it's a big van and worst case scenario, we can put some stuff with you and the kids."

"Okay."

"Let me send Peeta to go help you with your bags… PEETA! COME HERE NOW!"

Peeta gets out of the car with a puzzled look on his face and approaches us saying, "What?"

"Go help Katniss grab those suit cases and go put them in the van. We're going hiking."

"Um… okay." He replies as he grabs the largest suitcase from my hand.

"I got it, I'm okay." I say, but he still goes and grabs it. "I swear I got it Peeta, you can let go."

"Katniss, let me take it, take the smaller bag, please." He says looking at me intently with his bright blue eyes.

"Fine." I let go taking the second-largest bag, but he beats me to it.

"Take the other one, he says indicating to the last bag, my bag. I grunt at him and grab the bag. We walk quietly to the car and put the three bags in the truck, which fit perfectly well and enter the minivan. I sit down and start crying. I miss my parents and I can't handle the loneliness I am feeling right now. _Stop, you're embarrassing yourself right now and you're going to make Caroline and her family feel bad. Stop._ But I can't.

"It's okay, Katniss, you're going to be okay." Caroline whispers.

"Caroline, can I start driving?" Ronald interrupts.

"Sure… Katniss, it's going to be okay."

"No it isn't… it probably never will…" I sob.

"They say sometimes you have to lose things in order to get better things." Prim states.

"What's better than my parents?"

"That's the thing, you have to wait… then you'll find out."

"Let's just watch a movie or something to get everyone's mind off of everything." Rye suggests.

"No." Caroline replies. "We're arriving at the camp site in like five to ten minutes, so there's no point in setting up a movie. Listen to music or read something instead."

"Can you please turn on the radio?" I ask.

"Of course." She responds while pushing the radio button. Music blares through the speakers of the car and I suddenly feel okay. I put my head against the glass and close my eyes. Then for the second time today, I fall asleep in the car.

* * *

"Katniss, wake up… We're here… we even unloaded the stuff, come on, wake up." Prim whispers as she shakes me.

"Aahhh." I say as I yawn and open my grey eyes and look at her hazel ones that resemble her mother's.

"Lets go." I get up and follow her, as she quickly locks the car. We walk through the forest for a couple of minutes, until we reach the campsite where Ronald, Caroline, Peeta, and Rye are sitting at.

"Hey sleepy head…how was your nap?" Ronald asks, a smile forming on his face.

I mirror his smile on my own face and reply "good".

"Great… do you want to eat first or hike first?"

I haven't in hours, but I wasn't that hungry and whatever we do shouldn't be determined by how I feel. "What do you suggest?"

"Let's go hiking first." He grabs his backpack, puts it on and starts walking towards the trail. "Come on guys, you heard me, let's go."

Suddenly, everyone puts on their backpacks and follows him too. "Do you want me to carry your backpack Caroline? It's the least I can do right now."

"Sure." She flashes a grin as she passes me her backpack. It was heavy, but that was okay, since she was willing to allow me to spend time with her and her family in the woods camping and willing to take me to Edmonton to my aunt. She didn't have to, but she did.

I'm a fast walker, so I'm able to keep up at the same pace as Caroline and her family, which I guess was good. I approach Prim and whisper "hi".

"Hey back."

"How old are you?"

"14. You?"

"I'm 15."

"Pretty much in between me and Peeta, he's 16."

"Oh ok."

"How are you finding the hike?" She asks.

"The view here is amazing." Looking around makes me awestruck because the view here is amazing. There are trees on mountains and mountains everywhere.

"I love coming here, to be honest."

"I would too."

Silence comes over us as we continue to admire the view. Minutes turn into hours and suddenly we arrive at the top of the mountain where we can see the horizontal view of the mountains and the sky being interconnected. "It's beautiful." I whisper.

"I know." Says a voice I don't recognize. I turn around and see Peeta, watching his blue eyes look at the view.

I ignored him and kept looking at the view.

"Can you take a picture of me over there?" He asks.

"Uh, sure." I reply as I take his phone and wait for him to stand in his desired position. I angle the camera horizontally and take two pictures and then angle the camera vertically and take another two photos. I hand his phone back and our fingers brush lightly. "Do you like them?"

"Yes, they're very nice. Do you want to take a family picture of me and my family?"

"Okay." I reply as he hands me his phone again.

"Mom, dad, Prim, and Rye, let's go stand over there for a family photo." He yells while pointing at his desired spot. His family walks slowly, but eventually get there and pose, smiling bright. I snap a couple of photos in different angles and hand back Peeta's phone. "These are really good. I'm going to have a lot of photos to post on Instagram."

I laugh. "Okay."

"What? You don't have Instagram?"

"No… I do, it's just don't go on very often, I use SnapChat more. Why, do you have a nice feed on Instagram or something?"

"Yes, Instagram and my feed are very important to me." He laughs, making me laugh too.

"He's such a drama queen, honestly. If he doesn't get more than 175 likes on each photo, he'll freak out… like literally freak out." Prim complains joining our conversation.

"But you get like 250 likes per photo." He replies back.

"But the difference between you and me is that I don't care about how many followers and likes I get, so that's why I have so many. What's your name on Instagram, Katniss?"

"See you care too…" Peeta interrupts me before I can answer.

"Shut up Peeta… anyway Katniss, what's your username?"

" , what's yours?"

"yourgirlprim"

"Okay, what's yours Peeta?"

"theofficalpeeta"

"Do you expect me to follow both of you now?"

"Obviously." Peeta replies. "Now go take a picture of me in front of the view."

"Okay." I respond following her to go take her picture. After a couple of shots, I hand back her camera.

"Let's take one selfie together, so we won't forget eachother."

"Okay." I reply as we take two selfies together.


End file.
